Saturday, October 14, 2017

I don't know much about art. I can recognize Warhol, Picasso, Monet . . . by name and style.

I recognize the New York Museum of Art and the Louvre.

I don't remember studying any of it during required art classes in elementary school.

So when Alida invited me to participate in this blog hop, initially, I said no. She, of course, said think about it. It sat there, niggling in the back of my brain. I didn't even know where to begin.

One day I walked into the library, took my normal path to the discontinued books. My decision was made instantly.

I found this book:

I recognized the artist's name. I wasn't familiar with his work, but the cover grabbed me and wouldn't let go. I could see this hanging on my wall. I could see the colors.

I could see the batiks !!!!

I said yes !

For me the process began with an invitation and a book. I already decided on a wall hanging.

I continued to play with the fabrics over the summer trying to make a final decision. I worked on other projects and commitments in the mean time, including another deadline for October. I finally put in some serious time at the end of September.

Timing is everything. Newton went camping for the weekend and Honey Do agreed to carry out and no cooking.

Several years ago, Honey Do had a business trip to Hawaii - yeah, I know. I got to go too :)

Absolutely gorgeous, nine days of perfection. When I looked at the Matisse piece I saw ocean water and coral. I decided on a blue background I found in my stash. Then I started choosing my "coral" colors and came up with this combination above.

Matisse's book generously provided the patterns.

(from Matisse, a Second Life)

I traced the designs on fusible web. My favorite is Wonder Under because it's really light weight. Even Heat and Bond Light is too heavy for most of my projects. Once it was ironed on to the fabric, I spent an evening cutting them out and playing around with the layout.

Once I made a final decision,

I set them with the iron so that I could start appliquing by machine. I normally like to hand stitch, but wanted to play with some Aurifil thread I won over the summer.

And the sewing began, dark in some places but I really love the variegated thread.

After just a couple of days, I had the applique finished, and the project sandwiched.

Next, quilting by machine.

Once the quilting was done, binding. I was going to sew on the binding but decided to just bring it from the back. I like how it turned out.

Friday, October 13, 2017

The day started out dreary and foggy as I drove to Mom's. Goodies all got packed and I was looking forward to spending some time with her.

She loved all the goodness I brought her and what lovely, sweet conversation we have. It continually amazes me how much talking we can do when we get together :)

I took her the last bloom from my favorite rose bush. It was a gift from her years ago to me for Mother's day. I pamper and care for it every year in fear of losing it. And what a wonderful last bloom it is. Mom was thrilled to get it.

My goals for the day were simple.

1. Growing Up QAL - choose fabrics. DONE

2. Snowman - making progress. I only have one more arm and his head to do. DONE

My "play day" ended up being much shorter than I had planned. Honey Do needs my car for international visitors for work next week, so I needed to clean it out. I don't mean to neglect it, I just forget every time I get out of it. I took it to the car wash and used their industrial vacuums to sweep it out. I still need to get some soapy hot water to wipe the interior, which I have planned for Friday.

Once that was done, a quick trip to the grocer for dinner supplies and the library for some printing and back home for my "play day".

Delayed again with the breakfast casserole I made to take to Mom's on Thursday :)

And I did mention dinner :)

Chicken Pot Pie

It's very humid, but rained off and on all day, I thought it was the perfect meal.

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Monday was much more productive than I dared hope. These were my goals for Monday:1. Post introduction post for Art with Fabric Blog Hop

DONE

2. Sandwich Pam's quiltDONE

The backing for this quilt needed to be a little larger, so I cut and pieced the back. I incorporated a couple of left of blocks from the kids so I could use them up. Ready for pin basting and trimming.

3. MendingDONEI had a fitted sheet that I wanted to add elastic to the corners to prevent it from pulling out.4. Make PJsI didn't have time to get to these. 5. Christmas wall hangings

Threads were chosen to match the background fabrics in these little projects.

It's been a long time since I started these. I needed to see where I was. Stitching was done by machine this time around. There are quite a few of these little "hats" to stitch. I did them one color at a time, instead of each project from start to finish. I didn't have to change thread as often. Next step is to embroider all the lettering.I also did some baking between loads of laundry.

Pear and cranberry clafoutis. Can't wait to dig in :)

On the agenda for Tuesday:

Since it's Bible Study day, and our class is volunteering in the children's program there wouldn't be much time between daily chores and meals to do much. I did manage to get some time in on the snowman stitchery that has been hanging around too long.

It felt really good to do some stitching. It's been quite a while since I've had any interest in doing some.

I also managed to transplant a peony tree from my front garden to a back garden.

All my flower beds are in need of serious overhaul. Unfortunately, I'm loosing interest in them to quilting and stitching. Hopefully this will take because it was blooming beautifully in the spring in the front garden. This one gets lots of sunshine so I hope that it will thrive and encourage the bees to visit us. They are risking extinction from lack of flowers and pesticides. I need them around to not only encourage the flowers but the blooms on my vegetables.

For Wednesday goals:

1. Mending - yes, there's still more. I'm breaking it up over the week.

2. Christmas PJs - two pairs to cut out.

3. Wall Hanging - begin embroidery.

4. I Love Home - Block 1 - cut out the pieces

5. Growing Up QAL - read the instructions.

That should keep me busy all day. The forecast is for rain and a perfect excuse to stay home. I do have to run to the grocery store and library, but I'll make quick trips of them first thing.

The sewing room has been extremely unproductive of late. The last thing I finished was the Art with Fabric project. This is a fun blog hop that you can read more about here.

So what's been keeping me so busy? I've been working a bit more at the office since school began. There's lso ben several meetings at school for future planning. Sixteen is not too soon to think about independence. Bible study and Sunday School fill some time, not as much as last year; laundry and cooking fill even more. But the best use of my time has been spent with Mom on Thursdays.This year's school schedule has changed so I don't have to rush home. Dinners are planned and usually begun. This has given us time to enjoy breakfast together and some of the sweetest conversations we've ever shared. We do a bit of cleaning, purging and reorganizing. Mom got some new windows so we're in the process of re-installing hardware, rods, curtains and blinds.When I'm home I feel like all I do is laundry, cook and dishes. I'm really ok with that as I really do love doing these things for my family. I enjoy the challenge of budgeting and menu planning; staying home as much as possible; using what we have.On to my goals:Goals for the week of October 2, 20171. Pam's Quilt - Progress has been made- sandwich - done- quilt- bind- label2. I Love Home BOM - no progress- assemble Block 1- assemble Block 2- assemble Block 33. Crazy Quilt Snowman - no progress- finishing stitching4. Santa Hats Wall Hangings (x3) - no progress- review project, determine next steps5. Christmas PJ's (x2) - no progress- cut out patterns- assembleThis list is not very encouraging. I'm keeping the same goals for this week: